The Marketing Book 5th Edition

714 The Marketing Book

Need can be classified in a number of
ways. Andreasen (1995) suggests that three
factors should be considered: problem inci-
dence (rates of need or problem per segment),
problem severity (severity of need or problem
per segment), and ‘population defencelessness’,
ability per segment to cope with the problem or
need (p. 177).

The social marketing mix

The marketing mix (see Chapter 11) also has to
be adapted for use in social marketing. This
section examines the relevance and application
of each element of the mix (see Table 27.3).

Product

As described above, social marketing products

are frequently intangible and complex behav-

iours. This makes it difficult to formulate

simple, meaningful product concepts (Bloom

and Novelli, 1981). To take an example, ‘reduc-

ing one’s fat intake’ is a complex behaviour in a

number of ways: it involves a change in food

choice, menu design, shopping behaviour, food

preparation, personal habits, family routines,

wider social norms and so on. Further, it is a

behaviour which needs to be practised not just

once, but repeated and sustained over a long

period of time (Kotler and Roberto, 1989). As a

first step towards formulating product con-

cepts, social marketers need to identify and

Table 27.3 The social marketing mix

Tool Types

Product The offer made to target adopters Adoption of idea (belief, attitude, value)

Adoption of behaviour (one-off, sustained)

Desistence from current behaviour

Non-adoption of future behaviour

Price The costs that target adopters have to

bear

Psychological, emotional, cultural, social,

behavioural, temporal, practical, physical,

financial

Place The channels by which the change is

promoted and places in which the

change is supported and encouraged

Media channels

Distribution channels

Interpersonal channels

Physical places

Non-physical places (e.g. social and cultural

climate)

Promotion The means by which the change is

promoted to the target

Advertising

Public relations

Media advocacy

Direct mail

Interpersonal

Adapted from Kotler and Roberto (1989, p. 44).